Court orders ISU to allow T-shirts with marijuana leaf

In this 2012 file photo, Josh Montgomery, 20, display a T-shirt Iowa State University's NORML chapter originally received permission to print. A district court judge recently ruled that the university's later use of trademark policy to censor the shirts was a violation of the students' First Amendment rights.(Photo: Register file photo)

A district court issued a permanent injunction Friday prohibiting Iowa State University administrators from using trademark policy to stop a campus group from printing university-themed T-shirts that depict a marijuana leaf.

In a 45-page ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa permanently barred ISU from enforcing the university's trademark licensing policies in a discriminatory manner against the campus chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The court specifically blocked ISU "from further prohibiting plaintiffs from producing licensed apparel on the basis that their designs include the image of a similar cannabis leaf."

Students Erin Furleigh and Paul Gerlich, both former presidents of the NORML chapter at ISU, sued the university in July 2014 after officials rejected the student group's already approved T-shirt design — which included a marijuana leaf over the words "Freedom is NormL at ISU."

Because university officials blocked the design "due to the messages they expressed” in an effort to “maintain favor with Iowa political figures,” the court found that ISU engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.

"Defendants took action specifically directed at NORML ISU based on their views and the political reaction to those views so that defendants could maintain favor with Iowa political figures," Senior District Judge James Gritzner wrote.

The court also denied the defense of qualified immunity to the named defendants, including ISU President Steven Leath, Senior Vice President Warren Madden and recently retired Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill. As a result, the administrators may be held personally liable for violating Furleigh and Gerlich’s Constitutional rights.

"It is extremely significant that the judge denied the qualified immunity defense," said Catherine Sevcenko, FIRE's director of litigation. "It shows that the judge saw that any reasonable administrator would recognize that the actions would violate the First Amendment."

In their original complaint, the students detailed how the university censored the group's T-shirts based on their marijuana-related messaging and imagery, removed NORML ISU’s adviser and implemented new guidelines for using ISU’s trademark in order to restrict NORML ISU’s speech.

Gerlich said Friday he and Furleigh began seriously considering legal action after the university determined that could not even print the name of their organization on the T-shirts because the "M" stood for marijuana.

"It’s awesome to know that the courts agreed that our First Amendment rights were violated,” Gerlich said Friday. “I’m super excited that this decision would be used to help other campuses nationwide and make sure no one has to go through what we went through.”